Peanut has survived his first Christmas day - and what a Christmas he had!!!
It was amazing to watch how his reaction to receiving a wrapped present evolved.
His pre-Christmas reaction to the presents that were wrapped under the tree (the tree that was placed well out of his reach on top of the entertainment unit) was a curious fascination. He would point and make a kind of grunting noise till we picked him up and he could look at them. He did not try to grab the presents, he seemed to happy enough just looking at them
The first time he had a present put in front of him and he was encouraged to try and unwrap it, he just sat there with somewhat of a look of confusion on his face.
Mind you by the time we got to Christmas day, after a couple of Christmas gift giving session sitting, he did seem to get he hang of ripping wrapping paper off his presents, he was even keen to M34tb4LL and me wrap our presents. He learned very quickly that inside each colourfully wrapped gift was a new toy with the potential of making some kind of sound / music / bang / noise.
And then we get to the food! The spread on Christmas day was both traditional and plentiful.For lunch Peanut sampled some of the vegies and roast meat for his lunch and for his dinner - well he started with munching his through a rather large and juicy strawberry, followed by a taste of an asparagus roll (not a fan), then TWO bowls of cooked apple and he sucked up quite a few sticks of carrot. After feeding him this i went to get myself something to eat.
Well, this was when Peanut turned on the charm - to anyone that walked past him bearing a plate of food. And it seemed to work very well for him, he was given a few spoons full of strawberry mousse, some chocolate mousse, as well as some jelly and of course he was handed more strawberries. All he needs to flutter those beautiful baby lashes to passers by and they are putty in his tiny hands!
So the Christmas season is drawing to a close, we are know thinking of what to do for new years - i don't think Peanut will stay up for it this year, and then it will be time to start thinking about his first birthday.
Blimey - in one month, one week and a couple of days Peanut will be turning one!!!
(: Reggie
Friday, 28 December 2007
Monday, 17 December 2007
Its begining to look a lot like...
The house is looking a little bit different at the moment, and Peanut has noticed.
He has noticed the pile of presents on top of the entertainment unit. He has noticed the collection of cards next ot them. He has also noticed the tiny off cuts of wrapping paper that have been left on the floor (unintentionally of course) and taste so good.
But the festive season addition that he seems the most excited about is the Christmas tree. We bought a brand new Christmas tree this year, a 90cm fibre optic tree. It has been decorated with little purple bobbles and candy canes and a plastic Hello Kitty for the top.
Peanut is fascinated with the tree, he loves watching the lights as it flickers through its multicoloured lighting display. It was a smart idea to get a tree that easily sits on top of the entertainment unit rather than on the floor. The tree at the baby play centre has been placed in a play pen - to keep little hands off it. And if we had have bought a tree that sat on the floor I am sure that we would be spending ever minute of the day at the moment fishing bobbles out of Peanuts mouth.
And with this twinkling addition to the normal decor of our lounge room has come a new "trick" from Peanut. He seems to have learnt how to point. He will be looking stright at the three and he let out a grunt of excitement and point at it.
I know what you are thinking, is the fact the he now points at things worth blogging about? Well, yes, kind of...
Well at least this is a pre-Christmas post, and we are very quickly getting to Peanut's first Christmas, and he is noticing that something a bit different is going on (and with all the glittering lights, he is loving it!)
(: Reggie
He has noticed the pile of presents on top of the entertainment unit. He has noticed the collection of cards next ot them. He has also noticed the tiny off cuts of wrapping paper that have been left on the floor (unintentionally of course) and taste so good.
But the festive season addition that he seems the most excited about is the Christmas tree. We bought a brand new Christmas tree this year, a 90cm fibre optic tree. It has been decorated with little purple bobbles and candy canes and a plastic Hello Kitty for the top.
Peanut is fascinated with the tree, he loves watching the lights as it flickers through its multicoloured lighting display. It was a smart idea to get a tree that easily sits on top of the entertainment unit rather than on the floor. The tree at the baby play centre has been placed in a play pen - to keep little hands off it. And if we had have bought a tree that sat on the floor I am sure that we would be spending ever minute of the day at the moment fishing bobbles out of Peanuts mouth.
And with this twinkling addition to the normal decor of our lounge room has come a new "trick" from Peanut. He seems to have learnt how to point. He will be looking stright at the three and he let out a grunt of excitement and point at it.
I know what you are thinking, is the fact the he now points at things worth blogging about? Well, yes, kind of...
Well at least this is a pre-Christmas post, and we are very quickly getting to Peanut's first Christmas, and he is noticing that something a bit different is going on (and with all the glittering lights, he is loving it!)
(: Reggie
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Baby to Little Boy
The past 10 months have gone sooooo fast! It is mind boggling to think that in just a couple of days Peanut will be 10 months old!!!
I am looking at photos of him here, one was taken 21st March (when he was 1 1/2 months old), one taken 10th May (when he was 3 months old) and another taken 31st October (at nearly 9 months old) and it is amazing how much he has grown up already.
I remember when the first photo was taken, he was so small - I could cup his whole in head my my hand. At that time he would smile at M34tb4LL and myself, turn his head when we spoke to him, he loved sitting in his bouncy chair and staring at the toys that hang from the bar attached to it. He would even fall asleep in the bouncy chair sometimes! But that was pretty much all he was able to do!
By the time he was three months old, he was happily sitting up on my knee, would smile and laugh, he played with his toys, his hand and his feet.
By 9 months he was crawling, every object he could get his hands onto was an object of interest, he was saying simple sounds like mama dada baba, was able to hold his bottle himself and had gotten eating his mushy food down pat.
Now, at nearly ten months he can (or at least try) feed himself toast, sandwiches, cubes of fruit and vegies and chunks of cheese - it's messy, but it works. He is crawling very well now, if I turn my back for just a minute I have to go on a hunt to find him. Fortunately for me this is quite easy because he finds it such a fun game he will be laughing constantly!
And as for his eating - he now wants to feed himself! This is a little tricky for him seeing as he has NO coordination. But to encourage him with the whole self feeding thing, last night i gave him some chopped up peach. HE LOVED IT! He was grabbing little squares of peach and shoving them into his mouth, and he was doing a strange trembling laugh while eating. He was so excited with the process of feeding himself
I am finding it hard to believe that in two months he will be a year old! Soon he will be walking - making him a toddler! He is not a baby much longer!!! it makes me want to shed a little tear.
(: Reggie
I am looking at photos of him here, one was taken 21st March (when he was 1 1/2 months old), one taken 10th May (when he was 3 months old) and another taken 31st October (at nearly 9 months old) and it is amazing how much he has grown up already.
I remember when the first photo was taken, he was so small - I could cup his whole in head my my hand. At that time he would smile at M34tb4LL and myself, turn his head when we spoke to him, he loved sitting in his bouncy chair and staring at the toys that hang from the bar attached to it. He would even fall asleep in the bouncy chair sometimes! But that was pretty much all he was able to do!
By the time he was three months old, he was happily sitting up on my knee, would smile and laugh, he played with his toys, his hand and his feet.
By 9 months he was crawling, every object he could get his hands onto was an object of interest, he was saying simple sounds like mama dada baba, was able to hold his bottle himself and had gotten eating his mushy food down pat.
Now, at nearly ten months he can (or at least try) feed himself toast, sandwiches, cubes of fruit and vegies and chunks of cheese - it's messy, but it works. He is crawling very well now, if I turn my back for just a minute I have to go on a hunt to find him. Fortunately for me this is quite easy because he finds it such a fun game he will be laughing constantly!
And as for his eating - he now wants to feed himself! This is a little tricky for him seeing as he has NO coordination. But to encourage him with the whole self feeding thing, last night i gave him some chopped up peach. HE LOVED IT! He was grabbing little squares of peach and shoving them into his mouth, and he was doing a strange trembling laugh while eating. He was so excited with the process of feeding himself
I am finding it hard to believe that in two months he will be a year old! Soon he will be walking - making him a toddler! He is not a baby much longer!!! it makes me want to shed a little tear.
(: Reggie
Thursday, 1 November 2007
Time to compare again
On the 26th of April 2007 I put in a post called "Take a moment to compare", with a photo of Peanut with his teddy at 8 days old and 8 weeks old. Well on the 8th of October he turned 8 months old and of course another photo was taken of him with his teddy.
This photo was not as easy to take as the first photo. Ever since Peanut figured out how to roll himself over easily he had been flipping onto his tummy when he sleeps. And if I tried to turn him over to take the photo he would wake up and the opportunity to get the desired shot was gone. Luckily on the day this picture was taken, he was soooo tired when I put him in his cot that he went straight to sleep before he had the chance to flip over!
So for the full comparison, here is a photo of how he prefers to sleep now - he flips over, shuffles out from under his blanket, tucks his legs up under himself, and falls asleep on top of the covers.
We are lucky that Peanut is a bit of a snorer, with the way he now buries his face we can still easily tell that he is breathing!!!
(: Reggie
This photo was not as easy to take as the first photo. Ever since Peanut figured out how to roll himself over easily he had been flipping onto his tummy when he sleeps. And if I tried to turn him over to take the photo he would wake up and the opportunity to get the desired shot was gone. Luckily on the day this picture was taken, he was soooo tired when I put him in his cot that he went straight to sleep before he had the chance to flip over!So for the full comparison, here is a photo of how he prefers to sleep now - he flips over, shuffles out from under his blanket, tucks his legs up under himself, and falls asleep on top of the covers.
We are lucky that Peanut is a bit of a snorer, with the way he now buries his face we can still easily tell that he is breathing!!!(: Reggie
Friday, 19 October 2007
Upgrade complete!
As readers of my blog will know, i have been considering whether to upgrade my flickr account so i can store an unlimited amount of photos.
Well after thinking / blogging / talking to myself i decided that it was a good idea. Not only would i be able to share unlimited photos of our little peanut but the photos would be available in their full resolution format.
Now imagine my surprise when for my birthday (about two weeks ago) i received some money from my mother-in-law with the direct instruction that it was to be used to subscribe to flickr!!!
Peanut is not eight months old (well eight months, one week and four days) and i have noticed that we are not taking photos of him in the same way we were. We used to take a couple of photos of him every day, and all he would be doing in lying somewhere smiling at us. Now we seem to only take photos of him a couple times a week, or every few days at the most - but we are taking more photos in a single sitting.
The photos we are taking now seem to be trying to capture a baby milestone or something that he has only just gotten the hang of doing.
So if you find that the photos have dropped off, it may not be because there have been less taken, but more that there have been more taken that are all the same.
(: Reggie
Well after thinking / blogging / talking to myself i decided that it was a good idea. Not only would i be able to share unlimited photos of our little peanut but the photos would be available in their full resolution format.
Now imagine my surprise when for my birthday (about two weeks ago) i received some money from my mother-in-law with the direct instruction that it was to be used to subscribe to flickr!!!
Peanut is not eight months old (well eight months, one week and four days) and i have noticed that we are not taking photos of him in the same way we were. We used to take a couple of photos of him every day, and all he would be doing in lying somewhere smiling at us. Now we seem to only take photos of him a couple times a week, or every few days at the most - but we are taking more photos in a single sitting.
The photos we are taking now seem to be trying to capture a baby milestone or something that he has only just gotten the hang of doing.
So if you find that the photos have dropped off, it may not be because there have been less taken, but more that there have been more taken that are all the same.
(: Reggie
Thursday, 4 October 2007
Separation anxiety
Since Peanut was born, nearly eight months ago now, i have been at home with him every day - i have not returned to work. Actually when i say i have been at home with him i don't mean that we have been in the house all day every day. As you will all know from previous 'baby daze' post, we rarely spend all day at home doing nothing.
But this can not go on forever, i do need to get back into the work place sooner or later and to this we need to find alternate care for Peanut.
There was the option of leaving him at a lost and found counter and picking him up a the end of the day, but then i thought that might work for the first couple days and then i would have to find another option.
So the other option, which has now become the first option is to put Peanut into day care.
Before i had him i visited about half a dozen child care centres in the area and i chose one that is not too far from where we live. The way i made my chose was pretty much based on the 'vibe' i got from the places, how friendly the workers there are, how happy the children looked, the amount of cool toys the centre had...
Once i had made my choice i filled in an enrollment form and payed a deposit and played the waiting game. This was about 6 weeks before Peanut was born! I wanted to be prepared (:
I had been planning to go back to work about six months after leaving, but then there was that whole being made redundant thingy so i have been able to take my time getting used to the idea of Peanut going into day care.
And this has been a good thing, because just the thought of being away from him has been more traumatic than i imagined. Up until just a couple of weeks ago the longest that both myself and M34tb4LL had been away from him was for just under an hour when we went out for lunch and M34tb4LL's mother came to our house to watch the boy.
The day care centre has an introduction process available for all new comers, and i think it is just as much for the parents as the children - in fact come to think about it, it is probably more so for the parents.
They call it day care introduction and they invite a or both parents to come to the centre and stay in the room with their child for an hour or so, let the child play with the other children and the carers, give the parents a chance to chat to (grill) the carers, and basically see how the day to day routine works. And this is free of charge to the parents and can be done as often as is needed
I did this for a couple of weeks, just once a week, we sat in the room together, he played with other children and stole their toys and made sure that i was not too far away at any given time.
The third week it was suggested that i leave Peanut in the room and go to the staff room for a coffee. So after a short goodbye, about 15 minutes, i went to the staff room and made myself a cup of tea. About 5 minutes after i got to the staff room the owner of the centre arrived and we got talking. It ended up that i was in the staff room for about 1 1/2 hours, the owner was very good at keeping my mind off what Peanut was up to (she had done this before). I went back to the baby room, picked up the boy and went home.
The next week M34tb4LL took the morning off work and we dropped Peanut off at the centre together. We then LEFT the centre and went to the local Starbucks for a nice relaxing cup of coffee. After a rather distracted cuppa we went home and kept ourselves busy doing a bit of house work. After about 3 hours we went back to the centre to collect Peanut. He seemed to have had a good time. They told us that he had eaten all his breakfast, taken a nap, but refused to drink his bottle. Two out of three not bad.
So as the weeks go on, we will be leaving our boy for more time, till he is spending a whole day there. And i am not feeling as anxious about that thought as i had been. He seems to be liking it, and i am feeling better about the idea of going back to work and leaving him in the care of others. Now all i need to do is find a job!
(: Reggie
But this can not go on forever, i do need to get back into the work place sooner or later and to this we need to find alternate care for Peanut.
There was the option of leaving him at a lost and found counter and picking him up a the end of the day, but then i thought that might work for the first couple days and then i would have to find another option.
So the other option, which has now become the first option is to put Peanut into day care.
Before i had him i visited about half a dozen child care centres in the area and i chose one that is not too far from where we live. The way i made my chose was pretty much based on the 'vibe' i got from the places, how friendly the workers there are, how happy the children looked, the amount of cool toys the centre had...
Once i had made my choice i filled in an enrollment form and payed a deposit and played the waiting game. This was about 6 weeks before Peanut was born! I wanted to be prepared (:
I had been planning to go back to work about six months after leaving, but then there was that whole being made redundant thingy so i have been able to take my time getting used to the idea of Peanut going into day care.
And this has been a good thing, because just the thought of being away from him has been more traumatic than i imagined. Up until just a couple of weeks ago the longest that both myself and M34tb4LL had been away from him was for just under an hour when we went out for lunch and M34tb4LL's mother came to our house to watch the boy.
The day care centre has an introduction process available for all new comers, and i think it is just as much for the parents as the children - in fact come to think about it, it is probably more so for the parents.
They call it day care introduction and they invite a or both parents to come to the centre and stay in the room with their child for an hour or so, let the child play with the other children and the carers, give the parents a chance to chat to (grill) the carers, and basically see how the day to day routine works. And this is free of charge to the parents and can be done as often as is needed
I did this for a couple of weeks, just once a week, we sat in the room together, he played with other children and stole their toys and made sure that i was not too far away at any given time.
The third week it was suggested that i leave Peanut in the room and go to the staff room for a coffee. So after a short goodbye, about 15 minutes, i went to the staff room and made myself a cup of tea. About 5 minutes after i got to the staff room the owner of the centre arrived and we got talking. It ended up that i was in the staff room for about 1 1/2 hours, the owner was very good at keeping my mind off what Peanut was up to (she had done this before). I went back to the baby room, picked up the boy and went home.
The next week M34tb4LL took the morning off work and we dropped Peanut off at the centre together. We then LEFT the centre and went to the local Starbucks for a nice relaxing cup of coffee. After a rather distracted cuppa we went home and kept ourselves busy doing a bit of house work. After about 3 hours we went back to the centre to collect Peanut. He seemed to have had a good time. They told us that he had eaten all his breakfast, taken a nap, but refused to drink his bottle. Two out of three not bad.
So as the weeks go on, we will be leaving our boy for more time, till he is spending a whole day there. And i am not feeling as anxious about that thought as i had been. He seems to be liking it, and i am feeling better about the idea of going back to work and leaving him in the care of others. Now all i need to do is find a job!
(: Reggie
Saturday, 1 September 2007
Complete sense of self
I have read so many times (and been told) that babies have 'no sense of self', that they do not realise that they are individual entities. That when they look in a mirror they do not realise that they are seeing their own reflection and they think they are looking at another baby.
I (of course) have my own theory on this - they have complete sense of self.
Babies figure out from a very early age that when they cry they get attention, when they are hungry they get fed and when they are not happy the people around them go to great lengths to make them smile.
So if they have no sense of self, how do they figure out that they can get satisfaction by calling out to those around them?
M34tb4LL showed me an article the other day about how babies lie. It basically confirmed what I (and I am sure millions of other mother in the world) had been suspecting, that a baby will cry (with or without tears) to get attention. Even if there is nothing wrong, what baby wants - baby gets!
So back to the mirror theory, that when a baby looks into the mirror he thinks he is looking at another baby -
From the first time I held Peanut in front of the mirror, he would look at my reflection and give me a smile of acknowledgment. He would then turn around and look directly at me, showing the same amount of acknowledgment. So that got me thinking. Does he think that he has two mummies, one holding him and one holding another baby? Or is he fully aware that the other baby IS him and is just fascinated with his own reflection.
And while I am rambling on about a baby's sense or no sense of self - I get into the whole thing of 'they must have the concept that it ALL about them, that every thing that happens is for them'. In other word, a rather selfish attitude. But then I think that 'a selfish attitude is an adult concept, and it's not like a baby knows any better than to demand the attention he does'. So he would not have any sense of self if he were not aware that everything that happens is not about him.
So do babies have sense of self or not? Well with this brief insight into the mind of G (or the loops that I tend to go in), I have come to the conclusion that they do!!!
(: Reggie
I (of course) have my own theory on this - they have complete sense of self.
Babies figure out from a very early age that when they cry they get attention, when they are hungry they get fed and when they are not happy the people around them go to great lengths to make them smile.
So if they have no sense of self, how do they figure out that they can get satisfaction by calling out to those around them?
M34tb4LL showed me an article the other day about how babies lie. It basically confirmed what I (and I am sure millions of other mother in the world) had been suspecting, that a baby will cry (with or without tears) to get attention. Even if there is nothing wrong, what baby wants - baby gets!
So back to the mirror theory, that when a baby looks into the mirror he thinks he is looking at another baby -
From the first time I held Peanut in front of the mirror, he would look at my reflection and give me a smile of acknowledgment. He would then turn around and look directly at me, showing the same amount of acknowledgment. So that got me thinking. Does he think that he has two mummies, one holding him and one holding another baby? Or is he fully aware that the other baby IS him and is just fascinated with his own reflection.
And while I am rambling on about a baby's sense or no sense of self - I get into the whole thing of 'they must have the concept that it ALL about them, that every thing that happens is for them'. In other word, a rather selfish attitude. But then I think that 'a selfish attitude is an adult concept, and it's not like a baby knows any better than to demand the attention he does'. So he would not have any sense of self if he were not aware that everything that happens is not about him.
So do babies have sense of self or not? Well with this brief insight into the mind of G (or the loops that I tend to go in), I have come to the conclusion that they do!!!
(: Reggie
Sunday, 12 August 2007
*** Warning *** Cull Imminent
I give this warning to the people who have been enjoying the photos on 'Flickr'.
Unfortunately, at any given time, only a maximum 200 photos will be displayed on an individuals flickr page - unless of course one wants to ungrade for a annual fee to their "pro package", which i don't want to do if i can help it.
Seeing as i there are currently 199 photos on the page this cap is near reaching.
In one week from today i will be randomly culling some of the older photos to make room for newer one. So if there are any phots that you have a particular fondness to on the first few of pages i would suggest you either grab yourself a copy or take one last look.
(: Reggie
Friday, 10 August 2007
A Solid Start
Wednesday was Peanut's 1/2 birthday (he was six months old) and this means that it was time for us to introduce him to solid foods.
The first meal we had to give him is some good old farex, rice cereal. Mixed with some expressed milk to consistency of - and this is the midwife at the health centres words - wallpaper paste.
So last night we gave Peanut his taste of something other breast milk, but something that is very bland and tends to taste mostly of what it has been mixed with, and it had had been mixed with breast milk. I measured out 1 teaspoon of farex and 1 1/2 teaspoons of milk (i know that does not sound like much, but it was hard work just getting that much!).
While i was getting the food ready, M34tb4LL got ready to 'capture the moment'. He set up the video camera on a tripod, he switched the small digital camera to video mode, and got the other digital camera at the ready.
We then strapped Peanut in his swing-a-ma-jig, switched on all the AV and were ready to go.
The first couple of spoon went in to mouth with him hardly even noticing. He did try to grab the spoon off me, and ended up with the rice cereal over himself and me but that was not too bad.
What i would say was bad part was seconds after he finished the last mouth full of food - he chucked - projectile - the whole feed PLUS the milk feed he had had about an hour before - it was the most substantial chuck we had seen in months!!! And might i point out the amount of food he was eating here - 1 TEASPOON, not table spoon, of farex with 1 1/2 of milk.
And yes, the whole thing was captured on two video camera and on the still camera. Some of the photos will be making their was on to flickr and an edited video will be put on YouTube, but we think it will be better to leave the way the feed ended to the imagination.
That is until his 21st birthday when the whole thing will be shown of course.
So tonight we put Peanut in his bumbo (an easily cleaned, plastic chair), on his plastic play mat and gave him a second feed of the farex. He was fine with the first couple of spoons and as soon as he started to pull a face we stopped, about two spoons before the end of the quantity i had prepared. No chucking, no drama, not even a dribble of food on his bib!
So tomorrow night he will get the farex again, and then it is on to vegies - then fruit - then meat - and before we know it he will be munching through the sample box (2 dozen) from Krispy Kremes.
(: Reggie
The first meal we had to give him is some good old farex, rice cereal. Mixed with some expressed milk to consistency of - and this is the midwife at the health centres words - wallpaper paste.
So last night we gave Peanut his taste of something other breast milk, but something that is very bland and tends to taste mostly of what it has been mixed with, and it had had been mixed with breast milk. I measured out 1 teaspoon of farex and 1 1/2 teaspoons of milk (i know that does not sound like much, but it was hard work just getting that much!).
While i was getting the food ready, M34tb4LL got ready to 'capture the moment'. He set up the video camera on a tripod, he switched the small digital camera to video mode, and got the other digital camera at the ready.
We then strapped Peanut in his swing-a-ma-jig, switched on all the AV and were ready to go.
The first couple of spoon went in to mouth with him hardly even noticing. He did try to grab the spoon off me, and ended up with the rice cereal over himself and me but that was not too bad.
What i would say was bad part was seconds after he finished the last mouth full of food - he chucked - projectile - the whole feed PLUS the milk feed he had had about an hour before - it was the most substantial chuck we had seen in months!!! And might i point out the amount of food he was eating here - 1 TEASPOON, not table spoon, of farex with 1 1/2 of milk.
And yes, the whole thing was captured on two video camera and on the still camera. Some of the photos will be making their was on to flickr and an edited video will be put on YouTube, but we think it will be better to leave the way the feed ended to the imagination.
That is until his 21st birthday when the whole thing will be shown of course.
So tonight we put Peanut in his bumbo (an easily cleaned, plastic chair), on his plastic play mat and gave him a second feed of the farex. He was fine with the first couple of spoons and as soon as he started to pull a face we stopped, about two spoons before the end of the quantity i had prepared. No chucking, no drama, not even a dribble of food on his bib!
So tomorrow night he will get the farex again, and then it is on to vegies - then fruit - then meat - and before we know it he will be munching through the sample box (2 dozen) from Krispy Kremes.
(: Reggie
Monday, 30 July 2007
Baby Milestones
I find it hard to believe that only six months ago we were watching my swollen belly, shouting "get out" to it, and itching to meet our little man. Well in just over a week Peanut will be six months old and is far from the helpless little baby that brought home with us.
It seems like the months have flown by and that Peanut has learnt to sooo much in such short space of time, but it also feels like it has taken him soooo long to figure out how to the simplest of things. I think it a bit of both.
The first time he grasped something in his hand, i remember it very clearly. He was sitting on his bouncy chair. The chair has a toy bar that clips on to it and when we first started to use it, Peanut would stare at the toys, once in a while make a swot at the toys. I remember watching him staring intently at the plastic rings hanging from the bar, then he reached his hand out and grabbed onto them. As he held them in his hand he looked up at me with a "How the hell did i do that?" look on his face. I called M34tb4LL at work to tell him, then took about 2796 photos.
Well that is just one of the many milestones that Peanut has reached, like his first smile, first laugh, playing with his feet, sucked his thumb - then sucked his big toe, turning his head when he hears a voice he recognises, rolled over - and rolled back, reaches out for a favourite toy, cuts a first tooth, and many many more baby steps.
Well on Tuesday he reached another milestone (:
He said 'ma ma'. Now i am not fooling myself that he actually knows what he is saying, i know that he is just experimenting with the new sounds he has found - but it still made my heart melt.
On Thursday he said 'da da', on Friday he said 'na na' and Sunday 'ba ba'. Of course there was plenty of raspberrying and bubble blowing in between. Now today we got what i can only think is kissing practice, lots of lip smacking and tongue clicking. And the funny thing is the talking seems to have taken a bit of a back seat to this new found skill.
So who knows what tomorrow might hold, crawling, walking, running, jumping, shouting "i hate you mum!!!" and storming off to his room (getting a bit ahead of myself there maybe?)
(: Reggie
It seems like the months have flown by and that Peanut has learnt to sooo much in such short space of time, but it also feels like it has taken him soooo long to figure out how to the simplest of things. I think it a bit of both.
The first time he grasped something in his hand, i remember it very clearly. He was sitting on his bouncy chair. The chair has a toy bar that clips on to it and when we first started to use it, Peanut would stare at the toys, once in a while make a swot at the toys. I remember watching him staring intently at the plastic rings hanging from the bar, then he reached his hand out and grabbed onto them. As he held them in his hand he looked up at me with a "How the hell did i do that?" look on his face. I called M34tb4LL at work to tell him, then took about 2796 photos.
Well that is just one of the many milestones that Peanut has reached, like his first smile, first laugh, playing with his feet, sucked his thumb - then sucked his big toe, turning his head when he hears a voice he recognises, rolled over - and rolled back, reaches out for a favourite toy, cuts a first tooth, and many many more baby steps.
Well on Tuesday he reached another milestone (:
He said 'ma ma'. Now i am not fooling myself that he actually knows what he is saying, i know that he is just experimenting with the new sounds he has found - but it still made my heart melt.
On Thursday he said 'da da', on Friday he said 'na na' and Sunday 'ba ba'. Of course there was plenty of raspberrying and bubble blowing in between. Now today we got what i can only think is kissing practice, lots of lip smacking and tongue clicking. And the funny thing is the talking seems to have taken a bit of a back seat to this new found skill.
So who knows what tomorrow might hold, crawling, walking, running, jumping, shouting "i hate you mum!!!" and storming off to his room (getting a bit ahead of myself there maybe?)
(: Reggie
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Recommended Age (?????)
Baby toys is a quite the - well for want of a better thing to say - industry!!!
There are a number of brands that have many ranges of toys for all ages of babies, infants and children and keeping track is a bit of a task. Plus if one was to follow the age recommendations to the tee then i feel twice as many toys would be purchased than necessary, but i think that might be what they want!
Peanut had many toys in the age range 'birth' or '0+' bought for him when he was born, meaning that were considered safe for a newborn baby to play with. But when babies are newborn, they don't tend to play! they don't tend to much more than eat and sleep!!!
There are a few brands of toys that have different sets of toys for different 'stages'. 0 - 3 months, 3 - 6 months and so on. The funny thing is, is that by the time Peanut was starting to show real interest in the 0 - 3 month toys, he was nearly 3 months and theoretically should have been moving on the next 'stage' by then.
He is nearly 6 months and is still enjoying playing with the same toys the 0 - 3. Does this mean he is behind? Is playing with for want of something else play with?Or do the toy companies put out these many toys of many stages to make us buy more of them! One of the silliest things about the 0 - 3 toys is they have specially designed textures and made of specific materials to help with teething, when most babies get to at least 6 month if not older before they get teeth. Now for those of you who don't know, Peanut has actually gotten his first teeth already - but then he is quite advanced.
Wait a minute i have just contradicted myself there *shrug*
These days any toys with eyes, plastic ones, are considered not safe for children under the age of 3 years. Mostly because the eyes can be removed and swallowed by the child, so all soft toys for children under the age of 3 tend to have eyes that are embroidered onto the face.
Today while in a popular toy shop i saw a very cute blue teddy bear (there was also a pink one for girls) with "Happy 1st Birthday" printed on it.
Please excuse the quality of these photos, they were taken on my mobile phone. Plus i had Peanut in the BTD and he was trying to grab the bear off me. The first photo is not bad, but the second here is quite the bit blurry (:
So anyway the bear is being sold as a bear for a 1st birthday, but on the tag attached to it, it say it is not suitable for children under the age of 3!!!!! With bold print saying WARNING - CAUTION
So if toy manufacturing company can't decide their target age range, what hope do the rest of us have!
(: Reggie
There are a number of brands that have many ranges of toys for all ages of babies, infants and children and keeping track is a bit of a task. Plus if one was to follow the age recommendations to the tee then i feel twice as many toys would be purchased than necessary, but i think that might be what they want!
Peanut had many toys in the age range 'birth' or '0+' bought for him when he was born, meaning that were considered safe for a newborn baby to play with. But when babies are newborn, they don't tend to play! they don't tend to much more than eat and sleep!!!
There are a few brands of toys that have different sets of toys for different 'stages'. 0 - 3 months, 3 - 6 months and so on. The funny thing is, is that by the time Peanut was starting to show real interest in the 0 - 3 month toys, he was nearly 3 months and theoretically should have been moving on the next 'stage' by then.
He is nearly 6 months and is still enjoying playing with the same toys the 0 - 3. Does this mean he is behind? Is playing with for want of something else play with?Or do the toy companies put out these many toys of many stages to make us buy more of them! One of the silliest things about the 0 - 3 toys is they have specially designed textures and made of specific materials to help with teething, when most babies get to at least 6 month if not older before they get teeth. Now for those of you who don't know, Peanut has actually gotten his first teeth already - but then he is quite advanced.
Wait a minute i have just contradicted myself there *shrug*
These days any toys with eyes, plastic ones, are considered not safe for children under the age of 3 years. Mostly because the eyes can be removed and swallowed by the child, so all soft toys for children under the age of 3 tend to have eyes that are embroidered onto the face.
Today while in a popular toy shop i saw a very cute blue teddy bear (there was also a pink one for girls) with "Happy 1st Birthday" printed on it.
Please excuse the quality of these photos, they were taken on my mobile phone. Plus i had Peanut in the BTD and he was trying to grab the bear off me. The first photo is not bad, but the second here is quite the bit blurry (:
So anyway the bear is being sold as a bear for a 1st birthday, but on the tag attached to it, it say it is not suitable for children under the age of 3!!!!! With bold print saying WARNING - CAUTION
So if toy manufacturing company can't decide their target age range, what hope do the rest of us have!
(: Reggie
Thursday, 7 June 2007
Four month jab
So as mentioned in the previous post (see "baby daze") our little Peanut has had to have his second lot of immunizations. Is it second? Or is it third? Meh.
He got jabbed when he was born, again at two months and now that he is four months has had to have another confrontation with the dreaded needle, so third. In fact he had to have three needles this time.
Public immunisations happen at the council building ever month. They start at 6.00pm and go till everyone that needs to be injected is done. I have been told that if you get there before 6.00pm you don't have to wait too long.
We got there at 6.10pm and were given our number as we walked in the door - 41. We then took a seat and hear number 11 being called. So we had a bit of a wait. Actually the wait was not that bad, they have the whole "how to get people in, stuck with a needle and out again" pretty well down pat.
I sat in front of a woman from my mother's group and her little bundle and we chatted for a while, she had number 24, and when her number was called to go and get her baby's shots done my number was called to go to the back of the room and get the baby health record book stamped. We then took our seats again to wait to be called to the front.
When our number was called for a second time I went to the front and sat between two nurses with Peanut on my lap. The nurses then gave him the two injections, one in each leg from each of the nurses. The look on Peanuts face was like "what the hell was that for!!!" then one of the nurses gave him a third injection and he screamed, very very loudly.
How do you explain to baby why he is being stabbed in the legs for his own good, all he knows is that there are two people causing him pain and his mother is sitting there, holding him and letting it all happen.
At least when he is older he won't remember things like this. I will remember it, but he won't. And it much better that he gets immunised against these illnesses than has to suffer through them later on.
(: Reggie
He got jabbed when he was born, again at two months and now that he is four months has had to have another confrontation with the dreaded needle, so third. In fact he had to have three needles this time.
Public immunisations happen at the council building ever month. They start at 6.00pm and go till everyone that needs to be injected is done. I have been told that if you get there before 6.00pm you don't have to wait too long.
We got there at 6.10pm and were given our number as we walked in the door - 41. We then took a seat and hear number 11 being called. So we had a bit of a wait. Actually the wait was not that bad, they have the whole "how to get people in, stuck with a needle and out again" pretty well down pat.
I sat in front of a woman from my mother's group and her little bundle and we chatted for a while, she had number 24, and when her number was called to go and get her baby's shots done my number was called to go to the back of the room and get the baby health record book stamped. We then took our seats again to wait to be called to the front.
When our number was called for a second time I went to the front and sat between two nurses with Peanut on my lap. The nurses then gave him the two injections, one in each leg from each of the nurses. The look on Peanuts face was like "what the hell was that for!!!" then one of the nurses gave him a third injection and he screamed, very very loudly.
How do you explain to baby why he is being stabbed in the legs for his own good, all he knows is that there are two people causing him pain and his mother is sitting there, holding him and letting it all happen.
At least when he is older he won't remember things like this. I will remember it, but he won't. And it much better that he gets immunised against these illnesses than has to suffer through them later on.
(: Reggie
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
Baby Daze
Before Peanut was born i thought that being home with him would be, well, being at home. In the house, not much to do, and the only place to go would be the local shopping centre to wonder around and not spend money that i don't have.
How wrong was I!!!
His (and by default my) days seem to fill up rather fast. I have to have my calendar up to date for fear of double booking him (and me).
There is the whole 'pop over to see a friend who also has an underling for catch-up', that activity i kind of expected. But there are many more activities that i had never thought of and had never been exposed to pre-parenthood. Mind you if i had of been hanging out at these activities i would probably had the cops called on me.
To give you an example of what our week this week looks like, here is what is in the calendar -
Monday: Meet with other mums and bubs from our mothers group at the baby health centre to discuss setting up a baby play group (and of course catch-up in general)
Tuesday: Go to M34b4LL's work so the "groaning uteruses" can coo over Peanut and wish they could have another baby
Go to Eastland shopping centre to say hi to person who normally works at Local Starbucks but is doing a shift there, and buy some of the cute bonds socks that look like sneakers that they did not have at the local shopping centre
Be at the council building by 6.00pm to get the four month immunisation done (the closer to 6.00pm we get there the less time we have to wait in the queue)
Wednesday: Drive to Collingwood to have lunch with Auntie Lulu and her friend and her friend's bub.
Thursday: Four month check-up at the baby health centre
Attend the "story time for tiny tots" session at the local library (Peanut loves this, we sing songs and get to try and eat the books)
Friday: Nursery swimming class, for ages three to twelve months.
Friend coming over with for lunch to chat about people we know and reassure me that i am not being a total spazz of a mother
So that is the week this week - calendar full. And next week? Still a couple of days free, but that will change soon enough i think.
(: Reggie
How wrong was I!!!
His (and by default my) days seem to fill up rather fast. I have to have my calendar up to date for fear of double booking him (and me).
There is the whole 'pop over to see a friend who also has an underling for catch-up', that activity i kind of expected. But there are many more activities that i had never thought of and had never been exposed to pre-parenthood. Mind you if i had of been hanging out at these activities i would probably had the cops called on me.
To give you an example of what our week this week looks like, here is what is in the calendar -
Monday: Meet with other mums and bubs from our mothers group at the baby health centre to discuss setting up a baby play group (and of course catch-up in general)
Tuesday: Go to M34b4LL's work so the "groaning uteruses" can coo over Peanut and wish they could have another baby
Go to Eastland shopping centre to say hi to person who normally works at Local Starbucks but is doing a shift there, and buy some of the cute bonds socks that look like sneakers that they did not have at the local shopping centre
Be at the council building by 6.00pm to get the four month immunisation done (the closer to 6.00pm we get there the less time we have to wait in the queue)
Wednesday: Drive to Collingwood to have lunch with Auntie Lulu and her friend and her friend's bub.
Thursday: Four month check-up at the baby health centre
Attend the "story time for tiny tots" session at the local library (Peanut loves this, we sing songs and get to try and eat the books)
Friday: Nursery swimming class, for ages three to twelve months.
Friend coming over with for lunch to chat about people we know and reassure me that i am not being a total spazz of a mother
So that is the week this week - calendar full. And next week? Still a couple of days free, but that will change soon enough i think.
(: Reggie
Thursday, 31 May 2007
Pimp My Pram
Before our little one was born we went looking for the best pram for him. We read through Choice magazines tips and tests, we went to baby stuff shops and asked for expert advise, we even sat at the local Starbucks and counted the makes and models of prams that went by to see which was the favourite.
We ended buying the one that Choice gave equal first to based on their trials (the other that came first, points wise, was twice the price and has been discontinued), was the one that the baby stuff shop recommended hands down over any others and the one that we saw the most on our coffee sipping people watching. Reading this paragraph back to myself it sounds like we bought three prams!!! No just the one - that happened to come first in all three categories.
So we have the pram that is to be had! and i even went out and bought the matching seat cover that comes with three pram toys that hang from the grip tabs built into the pram canopy.
At the first mothers group meeting, half of the mothers there had the same pram that we did. Walking around the local shops i see mothers pushing the same pram that we am pushing. And the in laws that are weeks off having an offspring of their own have bought the same pram that we bought! It is a popular pram!!!
There is a range of toys that i have kind of fallen in love with and i tell my self that it is Peanuts favourite toy line but that might be because it is the toy that i shove in his face more than other toys *** shrug ***
The toy range has four characters: a frog, a duck, a caterpillar, and a turtle - and the turtle is sooooooooo cute.
So Peanut started this toy range off with a frog that is holding a plastic bar between its hands that has three plastic shapes threaded on it, kind of like a chewing thingy. The frog was given to him by friends of ours when they first met the boy. I have since bought him the turtle toy the same as the frog, a slightly larger turtle with plastic chew bits instead of flippers and a rattle in the tummy, a smaller version of the turtle that is wrapped around a clear plastic tube with little balls in it, a larger cuddly turtle soft toy version, and he even has sheets that are printed with the heads of the four character and polar fleece blanket with the turtle appliqued on it.
Now back to the topic of the pram -
Peanuts pram does not look like completely like all the other prams around, mainly because of the toys of entertainment that adorn it. I have taken the dangles that came with the seat cover and replaced them with a duck, a caterpillar and a turtle dingle dangle from the afore mentioned range. He also has three of the character tied to the front bumper (that is what the bar that babys can hang onto while in the pram is called) and the duck quacks when squeezed!
So his pram does not completely look like the other prams that get wheeled around our local, and with a set of 'spinner rims' and some 'cold cathodes' it will look really rad!
(: Reggie
** edit **
There is a seller on ebay who has a great range of t-shirts for babies and toddlers
http://stores.ebay.com.au/Bondi-Top-Sellers
Including this one -
We ended buying the one that Choice gave equal first to based on their trials (the other that came first, points wise, was twice the price and has been discontinued), was the one that the baby stuff shop recommended hands down over any others and the one that we saw the most on our coffee sipping people watching. Reading this paragraph back to myself it sounds like we bought three prams!!! No just the one - that happened to come first in all three categories.
So we have the pram that is to be had! and i even went out and bought the matching seat cover that comes with three pram toys that hang from the grip tabs built into the pram canopy.
At the first mothers group meeting, half of the mothers there had the same pram that we did. Walking around the local shops i see mothers pushing the same pram that we am pushing. And the in laws that are weeks off having an offspring of their own have bought the same pram that we bought! It is a popular pram!!!
There is a range of toys that i have kind of fallen in love with and i tell my self that it is Peanuts favourite toy line but that might be because it is the toy that i shove in his face more than other toys *** shrug ***
The toy range has four characters: a frog, a duck, a caterpillar, and a turtle - and the turtle is sooooooooo cute.
So Peanut started this toy range off with a frog that is holding a plastic bar between its hands that has three plastic shapes threaded on it, kind of like a chewing thingy. The frog was given to him by friends of ours when they first met the boy. I have since bought him the turtle toy the same as the frog, a slightly larger turtle with plastic chew bits instead of flippers and a rattle in the tummy, a smaller version of the turtle that is wrapped around a clear plastic tube with little balls in it, a larger cuddly turtle soft toy version, and he even has sheets that are printed with the heads of the four character and polar fleece blanket with the turtle appliqued on it.
Now back to the topic of the pram -
Peanuts pram does not look like completely like all the other prams around, mainly because of the toys of entertainment that adorn it. I have taken the dangles that came with the seat cover and replaced them with a duck, a caterpillar and a turtle dingle dangle from the afore mentioned range. He also has three of the character tied to the front bumper (that is what the bar that babys can hang onto while in the pram is called) and the duck quacks when squeezed!
So his pram does not completely look like the other prams that get wheeled around our local, and with a set of 'spinner rims' and some 'cold cathodes' it will look really rad!
(: Reggie
** edit **
There is a seller on ebay who has a great range of t-shirts for babies and toddlers
http://stores.ebay.com.au/Bondi-Top-Sellers
Including this one -
Saturday, 19 May 2007
On the day you were born
I have found a website that you can look up the horoscope of days since past, funky huh?
And here is the horoscope for Peanut on the day he was born (Aquarius, born 8th Feb 2007) -
"A fairly relaxed and balanced day for you is likely to end a thoughtful note today! Thanks to a couple of dynamic aspects you are going to be both bubbly and fun to be around! In terms of work or school it's looking ultimately positive, although the position of Jupiter suggests you need to listen!"
Well I suppose that everyone did want to be around him on the day he was born, and he did have to start leaning about the outside world...
Yer, whatever!!!
(: Reggie
And here is the horoscope for Peanut on the day he was born (Aquarius, born 8th Feb 2007) -
"A fairly relaxed and balanced day for you is likely to end a thoughtful note today! Thanks to a couple of dynamic aspects you are going to be both bubbly and fun to be around! In terms of work or school it's looking ultimately positive, although the position of Jupiter suggests you need to listen!"
Well I suppose that everyone did want to be around him on the day he was born, and he did have to start leaning about the outside world...
Yer, whatever!!!
(: Reggie
Wednesday, 9 May 2007
Bugger, missed it!
Happy 3 months birthday to you (for yesterday)
Happy 3 months birthday to you (for yesterday)
Happy 3 months birthday dear Peanut (for yesterday)
Happy 3 months birthday to you (for yesterday)
I did remember it yesterday, but just forgot to post. And here is a picture of the boy at three months of age -
He is doing latest trick - rolling onto his side and back again while lifting up his top, having a flash. He is also doing really well at grabbing things (and getting what ever he can to his mouth, the boy is orally fixated) and he has started to notice that he has feet!
The photo was taken at our mothers and bubs group yesterday (and the blanket was hand knitted for him by his own mother) which is umm.... interesting? i guess you could say? The group has been running for four weeks, but i missed the second week because we got a better offer for entertainment for that day.
It's funny though, the first day all these strangers turned up to this mothers group organised by the council, no-one knew anyone. Then by the third week (remembering that Peanut and I missed the second one) there was a "cool table" established, a group within the group that seemed to know each other really well and have been hanging out and buying gifts for each other.
And as of yesterday, week four, i still don't even know the names of most of the people there, let along have made any friends and been hanging out with them!!! Left to make friends with the chess club nerds again (:
Mind you, i do have feel a bit of a superiority over the "cool table" when i referred to one of the babies, who has the same name as Peanut, as his nemesis and she asked me what a nemesis is. And her baby is no where as cute as Peanut either, must try and get a photo of them together.
But back to the topic - the 3 month mile stone has been met!!! YAAAA, and we have had four sleep through the nights so far (not consecutive, but still...)
(: Reggie
PS - congrats Pauly on the arrival of Lily Isabel, now update your fucking blog!!!
Happy 3 months birthday to you (for yesterday)
Happy 3 months birthday dear Peanut (for yesterday)
Happy 3 months birthday to you (for yesterday)
I did remember it yesterday, but just forgot to post. And here is a picture of the boy at three months of age -
He is doing latest trick - rolling onto his side and back again while lifting up his top, having a flash. He is also doing really well at grabbing things (and getting what ever he can to his mouth, the boy is orally fixated) and he has started to notice that he has feet!
The photo was taken at our mothers and bubs group yesterday (and the blanket was hand knitted for him by his own mother) which is umm.... interesting? i guess you could say? The group has been running for four weeks, but i missed the second week because we got a better offer for entertainment for that day.
It's funny though, the first day all these strangers turned up to this mothers group organised by the council, no-one knew anyone. Then by the third week (remembering that Peanut and I missed the second one) there was a "cool table" established, a group within the group that seemed to know each other really well and have been hanging out and buying gifts for each other.
And as of yesterday, week four, i still don't even know the names of most of the people there, let along have made any friends and been hanging out with them!!! Left to make friends with the chess club nerds again (:
Mind you, i do have feel a bit of a superiority over the "cool table" when i referred to one of the babies, who has the same name as Peanut, as his nemesis and she asked me what a nemesis is. And her baby is no where as cute as Peanut either, must try and get a photo of them together.
But back to the topic - the 3 month mile stone has been met!!! YAAAA, and we have had four sleep through the nights so far (not consecutive, but still...)
(: Reggie
PS - congrats Pauly on the arrival of Lily Isabel, now update your fucking blog!!!
Thursday, 26 April 2007
Take a moment to compare
He may still sleeps in the same position that he did as a new born baby, but my has he grown!!! He is 11 weeks old today - another three weeks on from the second pic being taken. I have put a reminder in my calenday to take a photo of him with teddy when is 8 months old.(: Reggie
Monday, 16 April 2007
Days, weeks, months...
Everyday while i get asked how old Peanut is. I get stopped by strangers while i am at the shops, asked by friends who need a refresher, M34tb4LL gets asked by colleagues at his work who have nothing else to say to each other. And everyday his age is different.
For me (my age) the answer is easy, i just quote to the year that i have turned - no halfs or nearlyies, just the year. But for one so young, a couple of days does make all the difference. It is the difference between him being able to focus his eyes a certain distance and him being able to open and close his hand to grab at something, him knowing the voices of those around him and sleeping for more than two hour without needing a feed.
For the first few weeks after he was born, his age was quoted in days - 2day, 6 days, 10 days. Then when he got to two weeks it was weeks that his age was quoted in, up until the 8 week mark. Then he turned two months.
I'm not saying that he growing up too fast or anything like that, i'm really loving watching him get older, watching him loosing that tiny baby look and getting a glimpse of what he will look like as a toddler. And as each (now) month goes by, i am looking forward to watching him learn to roll over, crawl and walk.
Tomorrow is our first mothers group with other new mums in the area, and there is going to be another baby Logan in the group!!! I am keen to find out where the inspiration for calling her son Logan comes from.
(: Reggie
For me (my age) the answer is easy, i just quote to the year that i have turned - no halfs or nearlyies, just the year. But for one so young, a couple of days does make all the difference. It is the difference between him being able to focus his eyes a certain distance and him being able to open and close his hand to grab at something, him knowing the voices of those around him and sleeping for more than two hour without needing a feed.
For the first few weeks after he was born, his age was quoted in days - 2day, 6 days, 10 days. Then when he got to two weeks it was weeks that his age was quoted in, up until the 8 week mark. Then he turned two months.
I'm not saying that he growing up too fast or anything like that, i'm really loving watching him get older, watching him loosing that tiny baby look and getting a glimpse of what he will look like as a toddler. And as each (now) month goes by, i am looking forward to watching him learn to roll over, crawl and walk.
Tomorrow is our first mothers group with other new mums in the area, and there is going to be another baby Logan in the group!!! I am keen to find out where the inspiration for calling her son Logan comes from.
(: Reggie
Friday, 6 April 2007
All clear - YAY
Having developed the dreaded GD I had to have a follow up test to make sure that the hormones the caused it have , ummm, gone and that it has not lead to type 2 diabetes.
Well as you can see by the title of this post I am fine, but that does not mean you are not going to get the whole story anyway - it is my way!!!
I had to do the same two hour test as before with blood tests at the start, middle and finish. I took M34tb4LL's car to the hospital because the pram does not fit into my car, and I did not fancy the thought of holding the little man on lap for two hours.
I spent the two hours sitting in a little corridor with a mixture of pregnoids and their partners trying to read a copy of a trash mag that I bought from the hospital gift shop. Of course each time Peanut started to do his 'nana I would pick him up and we would walk up and down the corridor, but being such a small corridor I would only be able to take about five steps before turning around and coming back.
At one point on this little walkie walkie trip a bored looking male companion picked up my trash mag and started reading it. Once Peanut was settled and back in the pram I went to take the mag off him and he pulled it back saying "I'm reading this!!!". My response was to snatch it off him and say "I PAID for this!!!". The pregnoid that was with him gave me a thin smile and tugged on her companions arm in disgust.
After the two hours we went back to M34tb4LL's work to do a car swap (he had taken mine to work that morning) and we went home. I think the next time I fed Peanut I must have given him a sugar rush because he was hyper bunny for the rest of the day.
The week after the blood test we had to go back to the hospital to get the results. I did not take the pram this time, just the baby torture device.
- Moment to clarify -
Baby torture device (or BTD) is a baby carrier thingy that one straps on their front and the baby is snug and safe in this. The reason it is called a torture device is that the bubs is strapped in and can not escape and most of the time has not choice but to fall asleep, whether he wants to or not. It is the whole close contact, heartbeat, security thing.
- Back to it -
So after sitting around for an hour waiting for our turn we went into a consulting room to get the test results. The dietitian woman first looked at the original reads and told me with the levels that I had given they would expect me to have ended up with type 2 straight away. She then looked at my file and seemed surprised that i did not end up being given insulin shots, which is what someone with my level might have expected. She was also more surprised that Peanut was born two weeks late and did not end up being the size of a mallee bull. I asked her if stress played a part in the original test and she said it sure did, well the circumstances that had preceded that test - had left me a little stressed!!!
So the good news is the level after the first hour was about 1.5 lower than the preferred read and after the second hour I was 2 lower than what they would like to see. So I have not only been given the all clear at this stage, I am also giving levels that they can not call close to borderline.
Oh, forgot to mention, the sickly sweet drink was green this time. Tasted the same - but bright green - a little disturbing really.
(: Reggie
Well as you can see by the title of this post I am fine, but that does not mean you are not going to get the whole story anyway - it is my way!!!
I had to do the same two hour test as before with blood tests at the start, middle and finish. I took M34tb4LL's car to the hospital because the pram does not fit into my car, and I did not fancy the thought of holding the little man on lap for two hours.
I spent the two hours sitting in a little corridor with a mixture of pregnoids and their partners trying to read a copy of a trash mag that I bought from the hospital gift shop. Of course each time Peanut started to do his 'nana I would pick him up and we would walk up and down the corridor, but being such a small corridor I would only be able to take about five steps before turning around and coming back.
At one point on this little walkie walkie trip a bored looking male companion picked up my trash mag and started reading it. Once Peanut was settled and back in the pram I went to take the mag off him and he pulled it back saying "I'm reading this!!!". My response was to snatch it off him and say "I PAID for this!!!". The pregnoid that was with him gave me a thin smile and tugged on her companions arm in disgust.
After the two hours we went back to M34tb4LL's work to do a car swap (he had taken mine to work that morning) and we went home. I think the next time I fed Peanut I must have given him a sugar rush because he was hyper bunny for the rest of the day.
The week after the blood test we had to go back to the hospital to get the results. I did not take the pram this time, just the baby torture device.
- Moment to clarify -
Baby torture device (or BTD) is a baby carrier thingy that one straps on their front and the baby is snug and safe in this. The reason it is called a torture device is that the bubs is strapped in and can not escape and most of the time has not choice but to fall asleep, whether he wants to or not. It is the whole close contact, heartbeat, security thing.
- Back to it -
So after sitting around for an hour waiting for our turn we went into a consulting room to get the test results. The dietitian woman first looked at the original reads and told me with the levels that I had given they would expect me to have ended up with type 2 straight away. She then looked at my file and seemed surprised that i did not end up being given insulin shots, which is what someone with my level might have expected. She was also more surprised that Peanut was born two weeks late and did not end up being the size of a mallee bull. I asked her if stress played a part in the original test and she said it sure did, well the circumstances that had preceded that test - had left me a little stressed!!!
So the good news is the level after the first hour was about 1.5 lower than the preferred read and after the second hour I was 2 lower than what they would like to see. So I have not only been given the all clear at this stage, I am also giving levels that they can not call close to borderline.
Oh, forgot to mention, the sickly sweet drink was green this time. Tasted the same - but bright green - a little disturbing really.
(: Reggie
Saturday, 24 March 2007
We got smiles!
In fact we have been getting smiles for a while, but for the last week or so the smiles seem to be connected to attention we give to little Peanut and he is even giving out a little laugh once and a while.
We have been trying to get a photo of a smile for ages now, but they have been kind of fleeting - till now. So here is a picture!!!
(: Reggie
We have been trying to get a photo of a smile for ages now, but they have been kind of fleeting - till now. So here is a picture!!!
(: Reggie
Monday, 19 March 2007
And the prize goes to... LOGAN!!!
Now don't freak by the title of this post, i did not enter him into some sort of cutesy baby beauty pageant, but if i did he would win of course.
Yesterday we went to our family reunion, held at Narracan Falls in Gippsland, nearly two hour drive from home.
As soon as we got there Peanut was the star! People who i did not know, but apparently i am related to in one way or another, kept coming up to me and telling how gorgeous Logan is - well derrrrr, i could have told them that!!! Some people an opinion on how he was dressed for the day;
"he should have a hat on"
"he does not need socks on with the weather today"
"clothes for babies these day look too grown up"
"that top does not match the pants he is wearing" but then he did chuck on the matching top ealier in the day
and my favourite comment, not clothes related;
"are you sure he is a boy? He looks too pretty to be a boy" WTF??? crazy relos!!!
So anyway, not long after we arrived the parental, the sister of g, 2 aunts and 2 uncles and a grandparental arrived and set up a picnic table. We had a scrummo lunch and as we finished eating were asked to gather round for announcements and awards. There was one award that we were there for in particular, the youngest!
The grandparental missed out on being the oldest by only a couple of months, but Logan was the youngest by far! And we were given a little trophy to commemorate this.
There are two sides of the family, the swamps and the hills, or as they are also referred to the John and Emma side (the swamps) and the Tom and Annie side (the hills). We are from the hills and though Logan is not he youngest on the hills side - he was the youngest there and that is all that matters. The winner of youngest on the swamps side was a little girl called Matilda who was born in December, so that means that Logan was actually the youngest there from both sides.
We were also awarded with the most generations there, seeing as we had my grandfather, parents, me and son - four generations present.
Previously my little group of the family have missed out on these awards - i missed getting youngest, a few years ago now, only by a couple of weeks - and now because of Logan, we walked away with two awards.
Logan - an award winning baby - an over achiever at five and a half weeks - and cute as a button to boot.
(: Reggie
Yesterday we went to our family reunion, held at Narracan Falls in Gippsland, nearly two hour drive from home.
As soon as we got there Peanut was the star! People who i did not know, but apparently i am related to in one way or another, kept coming up to me and telling how gorgeous Logan is - well derrrrr, i could have told them that!!! Some people an opinion on how he was dressed for the day;
"he should have a hat on"
"he does not need socks on with the weather today"
"clothes for babies these day look too grown up"
"that top does not match the pants he is wearing" but then he did chuck on the matching top ealier in the day
and my favourite comment, not clothes related;
"are you sure he is a boy? He looks too pretty to be a boy" WTF??? crazy relos!!!
So anyway, not long after we arrived the parental, the sister of g, 2 aunts and 2 uncles and a grandparental arrived and set up a picnic table. We had a scrummo lunch and as we finished eating were asked to gather round for announcements and awards. There was one award that we were there for in particular, the youngest!
The grandparental missed out on being the oldest by only a couple of months, but Logan was the youngest by far! And we were given a little trophy to commemorate this.
There are two sides of the family, the swamps and the hills, or as they are also referred to the John and Emma side (the swamps) and the Tom and Annie side (the hills). We are from the hills and though Logan is not he youngest on the hills side - he was the youngest there and that is all that matters. The winner of youngest on the swamps side was a little girl called Matilda who was born in December, so that means that Logan was actually the youngest there from both sides.
We were also awarded with the most generations there, seeing as we had my grandfather, parents, me and son - four generations present.
Previously my little group of the family have missed out on these awards - i missed getting youngest, a few years ago now, only by a couple of weeks - and now because of Logan, we walked away with two awards.
Logan - an award winning baby - an over achiever at five and a half weeks - and cute as a button to boot.
(: Reggie
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
How fast they grow!
It is hard to think that as of tomorrow Peanut, I mean Logan is a month old already! And he has grown sooo much!
We visited the baby health centre today to have his four week check up and he is putting weight well, his head has gotten bigger (literally) and he is longer (taller) as well. He also looks different from the little baby that we brought home a month ago. He is still the same baby, he does not look THAT different, but he does not have the same "new born" face the he had - does that make sense?
So what has the last month been like? Fantastic!!!
Have we been able to get enough sleep? Not at all!!!
Do we know what Logan wants by the tone of his cries? Would not have a clue!!!
It seems that every time someone says "you both seem to be coping well with being first time parents" we will have the afternoon / evening from hell, like he hears us being told what a good job we are doing and thinks to himself - can't let them get a big head.
But we are not doing to bad. He has been gaining growing nicely between every baby health visit and is having more awake time and increasing in alertness. His reflects are as they should be and he is learning how to 'self settle' (going to sleep on his own in his cot).
It is funny when people ask about the birth and whether i would do it again, the answer to that is - yes. The brain has sufficiently blocked out enough of the trauma of child birth that i would consider going through it again. But is the brain going to block out the trauma of a new born enough for us to want to do again? Only time will tell.
(: Reggie
We visited the baby health centre today to have his four week check up and he is putting weight well, his head has gotten bigger (literally) and he is longer (taller) as well. He also looks different from the little baby that we brought home a month ago. He is still the same baby, he does not look THAT different, but he does not have the same "new born" face the he had - does that make sense?
So what has the last month been like? Fantastic!!!
Have we been able to get enough sleep? Not at all!!!
Do we know what Logan wants by the tone of his cries? Would not have a clue!!!
It seems that every time someone says "you both seem to be coping well with being first time parents" we will have the afternoon / evening from hell, like he hears us being told what a good job we are doing and thinks to himself - can't let them get a big head.
But we are not doing to bad. He has been gaining growing nicely between every baby health visit and is having more awake time and increasing in alertness. His reflects are as they should be and he is learning how to 'self settle' (going to sleep on his own in his cot).
It is funny when people ask about the birth and whether i would do it again, the answer to that is - yes. The brain has sufficiently blocked out enough of the trauma of child birth that i would consider going through it again. But is the brain going to block out the trauma of a new born enough for us to want to do again? Only time will tell.
(: Reggie
Sunday, 18 February 2007
Well, he's here!!!
And he is pink and plump and perfect!!!
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW PEANUT!!!!
But of course he did not make his grand entrance without a story behind it – so here is the story:
Following the instructions of the obs that made the appointment for him to be induced, we made our way to the hospital Wednesday evening, in fact we were early for our appointment time (have to be a good role model for the boy once in while).
We went to the admissions window and told them why we were there and they looked at us like we had asked them to fly us to the moon. They called the delivery suite people and then told us to go upstairs and let them sort us out.
We went to the appropriate level and were told by the nurse at the desk that they were expecting us at 8 AM, not 8 PM!!!!
But i even rang the delivery suite a couple of days ago and they seemed to have the same impression of our expected arrival time as we did. But, it seems that if things were to happen, we would be the people it would happen to!
After about an hour and a half of waiting around and being told that we may just have to go home and come back the next morning, we were told that they would take us and “see what they can do”, nice.
We were then shown to one of the delivery rooms – one were the bed did not work so they would not be using it to do an actual delivery in anyway. By this time it was about 10.00 before they gave me the pre-induction preparation. I then had to stay flat in the bed – not allowed to move for an hour. I started getting bad cramps in the lower abdominal area and of course already having cramps in my hips due the whole being pregnant thing, all i wanted to do was jump off the bed, or at least sit up, but this was a big no no if i wanted the prep thingy stuff to work.
After an hour i was allowed to move, thanks the gods, but the mid-wife kept feeling my tummy telling me that i was still getting mild contraction and could i feel them? Ummm no.
After an another hour the midwife left me to get some sleep and M34tb4LL went home. We did of course make sure that the hospital had his mobile number just in case things started happening during the night. I then went back to the bed to try and get some sleep. It was really weird sleeping in a bed in the middle of a hospital room, and no TV to go to sleep – a bad habit i know, but what are you going to do.
I woke up at six the next morning, the time they told me they were going to be staring the next step and when M34tb4LL was due to return. I only had to wait a few minutes as people started to come into the room, including M34tb4LL of course. It seemed what they had done had had the desired effect and they could go to the next step.
They moved me to another room – one where the bed was working – and continued with the induction procedure (i will not get graphic), which included putting a drip in back of my hand and strapping on a monitor to keep track on the baby and another monitor to keep track of the contractions that the stuff in the drip was supposed to start.
I started to get mild contractions and they showed me how to use the gas, so i knew how to use it when i really needed it. They also kept increasing the drip so that the contractions would get stronger.
Once again, the pain in my hips got the better of me and each time i tried to move to make the pain a little better the monitor they had strapped to me kept loosing the baby's heart beat. Luckily there was a easy solution to this problem, they could attach a monitor to the baby's head with a little clip and i would not have to worry about keeping the other monitor in place (again, not going to get into graphics of how this was done). They attached the clip and went to plug it into the monitor, but the monitor that they had in the room was not compatible. They went and got another monitor machine, hooked me up, and there was the the little ones again.
At about 10.00am they realised with the confusion the night before i had not actually been admitted to the hospital and they sent M34tb4LL back to admissions so i could be checked in. Not longer after he left the room the contraction that i had been getting stopped. The midwife continued to up the dosage on the drip and within an hour the contraction came again – AND HOW!!!
The gas certainly came in handy at this point, as did the shot of pethidine they gave me about an hour and quarter later.
It was close to the hour and a half mark that the old blood pressure started to rear its ugly head – or at least it started to go up a bit, then a bit more, then more again...
I can't quite remember what initiated the conversation of an epidural, but they asked me if i knew what one was and did i know what was involved. I explained the whole thing to them in great detail and one of them went to get a doctor. When the doctor arrived he told us it was for the best that they give me an epidural, not just for pain relief but because of the whole climbing blood pressure thing. I agreed with him – at that point i would have really agreed to anything – and he went to get an anesthesiologist.
Knowing that i would soon be bed ridden with a paralyzing chemical being pumped into my spine, i took the opportunity to go to the bathroom. While in there i got another contraction and apparently the sound i made was a little different than with previous contractions. One of the midwifes looked a the other and in a slightly panicked tone said “not again!”. This is because that at this particular hospital that we were at there was a baby born in the toilet not to long ago!
They opened the door on me and asked why i was making that particular sound, i said because it was sound i felt like it making. After a quick check of my progress they discovered that i was actually ready to have the baby.
The anesthesiologist came into the room to give me the epidural and they told him to not bother, it was too late for that.
So after about another 15 minutes Peanut was happily laying on chest, blinking at the light and sucking his fingers. Two hours from start to finish, blinding fast (not unhappy about that) and not the 12 + hours they were telling us to expect.
And now some stats for you -
Date: 8th Feb 2007
Time: 1:03pm
Weight: 3.71 kg (8 lb 3 oz)
Length: 52 cm
Name: Logan Jay
(: Reggie
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF TOMORROW PEANUT!!!!
But of course he did not make his grand entrance without a story behind it – so here is the story:
Following the instructions of the obs that made the appointment for him to be induced, we made our way to the hospital Wednesday evening, in fact we were early for our appointment time (have to be a good role model for the boy once in while).
We went to the admissions window and told them why we were there and they looked at us like we had asked them to fly us to the moon. They called the delivery suite people and then told us to go upstairs and let them sort us out.
We went to the appropriate level and were told by the nurse at the desk that they were expecting us at 8 AM, not 8 PM!!!!
But i even rang the delivery suite a couple of days ago and they seemed to have the same impression of our expected arrival time as we did. But, it seems that if things were to happen, we would be the people it would happen to!
After about an hour and a half of waiting around and being told that we may just have to go home and come back the next morning, we were told that they would take us and “see what they can do”, nice.
We were then shown to one of the delivery rooms – one were the bed did not work so they would not be using it to do an actual delivery in anyway. By this time it was about 10.00 before they gave me the pre-induction preparation. I then had to stay flat in the bed – not allowed to move for an hour. I started getting bad cramps in the lower abdominal area and of course already having cramps in my hips due the whole being pregnant thing, all i wanted to do was jump off the bed, or at least sit up, but this was a big no no if i wanted the prep thingy stuff to work.
After an hour i was allowed to move, thanks the gods, but the mid-wife kept feeling my tummy telling me that i was still getting mild contraction and could i feel them? Ummm no.
After an another hour the midwife left me to get some sleep and M34tb4LL went home. We did of course make sure that the hospital had his mobile number just in case things started happening during the night. I then went back to the bed to try and get some sleep. It was really weird sleeping in a bed in the middle of a hospital room, and no TV to go to sleep – a bad habit i know, but what are you going to do.
I woke up at six the next morning, the time they told me they were going to be staring the next step and when M34tb4LL was due to return. I only had to wait a few minutes as people started to come into the room, including M34tb4LL of course. It seemed what they had done had had the desired effect and they could go to the next step.
They moved me to another room – one where the bed was working – and continued with the induction procedure (i will not get graphic), which included putting a drip in back of my hand and strapping on a monitor to keep track on the baby and another monitor to keep track of the contractions that the stuff in the drip was supposed to start.
I started to get mild contractions and they showed me how to use the gas, so i knew how to use it when i really needed it. They also kept increasing the drip so that the contractions would get stronger.
Once again, the pain in my hips got the better of me and each time i tried to move to make the pain a little better the monitor they had strapped to me kept loosing the baby's heart beat. Luckily there was a easy solution to this problem, they could attach a monitor to the baby's head with a little clip and i would not have to worry about keeping the other monitor in place (again, not going to get into graphics of how this was done). They attached the clip and went to plug it into the monitor, but the monitor that they had in the room was not compatible. They went and got another monitor machine, hooked me up, and there was the the little ones again.
At about 10.00am they realised with the confusion the night before i had not actually been admitted to the hospital and they sent M34tb4LL back to admissions so i could be checked in. Not longer after he left the room the contraction that i had been getting stopped. The midwife continued to up the dosage on the drip and within an hour the contraction came again – AND HOW!!!
The gas certainly came in handy at this point, as did the shot of pethidine they gave me about an hour and quarter later.
It was close to the hour and a half mark that the old blood pressure started to rear its ugly head – or at least it started to go up a bit, then a bit more, then more again...
I can't quite remember what initiated the conversation of an epidural, but they asked me if i knew what one was and did i know what was involved. I explained the whole thing to them in great detail and one of them went to get a doctor. When the doctor arrived he told us it was for the best that they give me an epidural, not just for pain relief but because of the whole climbing blood pressure thing. I agreed with him – at that point i would have really agreed to anything – and he went to get an anesthesiologist.
Knowing that i would soon be bed ridden with a paralyzing chemical being pumped into my spine, i took the opportunity to go to the bathroom. While in there i got another contraction and apparently the sound i made was a little different than with previous contractions. One of the midwifes looked a the other and in a slightly panicked tone said “not again!”. This is because that at this particular hospital that we were at there was a baby born in the toilet not to long ago!
They opened the door on me and asked why i was making that particular sound, i said because it was sound i felt like it making. After a quick check of my progress they discovered that i was actually ready to have the baby.
The anesthesiologist came into the room to give me the epidural and they told him to not bother, it was too late for that.
So after about another 15 minutes Peanut was happily laying on chest, blinking at the light and sucking his fingers. Two hours from start to finish, blinding fast (not unhappy about that) and not the 12 + hours they were telling us to expect.
And now some stats for you -
Date: 8th Feb 2007
Time: 1:03pm
Weight: 3.71 kg (8 lb 3 oz)
Length: 52 cm
Name: Logan Jay
(: Reggie
Wednesday, 7 February 2007
Time is nearly up Peanut!
So at thirteen days overdue it seems there is no other option than medical intervention!
In less than 10 hours from now i will be in the hospital preparing for Peanut to be induced. To day is going to be really really long day!!!
Plus the look on M34tb4LL's face as he was going to work today - i have never seen him soooo not want to go! He put in a holiday leave for a month from the time Peanut was due to be born, but he told his boss that if the baby came early then he will be going sooner and if he came late he will be going later. We both thought that he would have been leave for a couple of weeks by now.
I still find it, umm i suppose i can say amusing, that i was told by the second obstetrician that the baby WOULD be born premature, even up to 10 weeks prem and that our hospital of choice could not take us for that reason. I soooo want to go to his office, shove my big belly in his face and scream "two weeks over". I doubt he would even remember me though - but i will not forget him... (G gives obs an evil glare)
But on the upside i have a friend who has just had a baby at the afore mentioned (but not named) hospital and she chose to cut her stay short because she did not like it there. Not that a stay in a hospital is supposed to be like a resort holiday, you know what i mean.
I wonder if the hospital will let me have my laptop so i can write an update? Doubt it. Ya'll have to wait till i get home in a couple of days time!!!
(: Reggie
In less than 10 hours from now i will be in the hospital preparing for Peanut to be induced. To day is going to be really really long day!!!
Plus the look on M34tb4LL's face as he was going to work today - i have never seen him soooo not want to go! He put in a holiday leave for a month from the time Peanut was due to be born, but he told his boss that if the baby came early then he will be going sooner and if he came late he will be going later. We both thought that he would have been leave for a couple of weeks by now.
I still find it, umm i suppose i can say amusing, that i was told by the second obstetrician that the baby WOULD be born premature, even up to 10 weeks prem and that our hospital of choice could not take us for that reason. I soooo want to go to his office, shove my big belly in his face and scream "two weeks over". I doubt he would even remember me though - but i will not forget him... (G gives obs an evil glare)
But on the upside i have a friend who has just had a baby at the afore mentioned (but not named) hospital and she chose to cut her stay short because she did not like it there. Not that a stay in a hospital is supposed to be like a resort holiday, you know what i mean.
I wonder if the hospital will let me have my laptop so i can write an update? Doubt it. Ya'll have to wait till i get home in a couple of days time!!!
(: Reggie
Sunday, 4 February 2007
10 days over, and counting
We are getting close to the end, if not by natural means we at least have a date that medical intervention will be employed!!!
Today we had our last (i hope) hospital visit as an outpatient, the next time we walk through those door we will not be walking out till we have our little Peanut safely in our arms. That is kind of KEWL thought.
I rang the delivery suite on Friday because i was freaking out slightly that i had not listened properly to the obs at our last visit and i had no idea of what was going to happen when. I spoke to really nice midwife who basically assured me that what i had remembered from the obs visit was correct but that i just had some of my terminology wrong.
If i do not go into labour naturally myself the baby will be induced on Thursday, BUT, we will actually come to the hospital Wednesday night where they do a pre-inducing procedure (not going to give you a visual) and then i will stay in over night and hopefully by Thursday they can start the inducing process. She said that half the time the pre procedure actually brings on labour anyway so it is all good.
The midwife then went on to give me few tips of what i can do to try and bring labour naturally myself, eating pineapple and/or a hot curry, going for walks, having a relaxing hot bath, and a few other things - most of these things i have tried anyway.
She also said that she could tell by the sound of my voice that i was stressed, well derrrrr, and that that might actually be setting me back a bit!!! Do you know what it does to a stressed person if you tell them they are stressed and not to stress??? They get MORE stressed!!!
Buy anyway - the hospital visit today:
We arrived at the hospital for our 9.00am appointment (on a Sunday!?!?!?) and i was strapped to a monitoring machine. Because of the position the baby was in i had to hold the sensor thingy in place and because of the whole fluid in my hands at the moment i promptly developed pins and needles and could not hold it. M34tb4LL held the sensor for me, and perched next to me on tiny plastic chair - while i sat back in comfy easy chair! He is such a sweetheart (: The monitoring lady kept telling him if he wanted to stay she could use his help with some of the other women there!
Each time i felt the baby move i had to press a button and it would put a mark on the graph that the machine was printing. This would show what the babies heart beat is while resting and while moving. Basically each time, i felt him move, the heart beat went up! As it should be!!!
Only problem was, with the size of the sensor thing (not very big), each time he moved M34tb4LL had to move the sensor around because he would lose the heart beat and would have to find it again.
After about half an hour of monitoring the graph showed a happy baby with a healthy heart beat and good movements.
We then had an ultrasound to make sure there was still enough fluid around the baby to see us through the next could of days. There was 10.6cm, apparently this is good. The scanning lady said if there was 4cm or less then we would not wait till Wednesday and they would get me back in tomorrow, but 10cm compared to 4cm seems like a good difference.
So now if Peanut does not make the move first we will be going back to the hospital in about 74.5 hours to get him started, not that i'm counting the hours now!!!
(: Reggie
Today we had our last (i hope) hospital visit as an outpatient, the next time we walk through those door we will not be walking out till we have our little Peanut safely in our arms. That is kind of KEWL thought.
I rang the delivery suite on Friday because i was freaking out slightly that i had not listened properly to the obs at our last visit and i had no idea of what was going to happen when. I spoke to really nice midwife who basically assured me that what i had remembered from the obs visit was correct but that i just had some of my terminology wrong.
If i do not go into labour naturally myself the baby will be induced on Thursday, BUT, we will actually come to the hospital Wednesday night where they do a pre-inducing procedure (not going to give you a visual) and then i will stay in over night and hopefully by Thursday they can start the inducing process. She said that half the time the pre procedure actually brings on labour anyway so it is all good.
The midwife then went on to give me few tips of what i can do to try and bring labour naturally myself, eating pineapple and/or a hot curry, going for walks, having a relaxing hot bath, and a few other things - most of these things i have tried anyway.
She also said that she could tell by the sound of my voice that i was stressed, well derrrrr, and that that might actually be setting me back a bit!!! Do you know what it does to a stressed person if you tell them they are stressed and not to stress??? They get MORE stressed!!!
Buy anyway - the hospital visit today:
We arrived at the hospital for our 9.00am appointment (on a Sunday!?!?!?) and i was strapped to a monitoring machine. Because of the position the baby was in i had to hold the sensor thingy in place and because of the whole fluid in my hands at the moment i promptly developed pins and needles and could not hold it. M34tb4LL held the sensor for me, and perched next to me on tiny plastic chair - while i sat back in comfy easy chair! He is such a sweetheart (: The monitoring lady kept telling him if he wanted to stay she could use his help with some of the other women there!
Each time i felt the baby move i had to press a button and it would put a mark on the graph that the machine was printing. This would show what the babies heart beat is while resting and while moving. Basically each time, i felt him move, the heart beat went up! As it should be!!!
Only problem was, with the size of the sensor thing (not very big), each time he moved M34tb4LL had to move the sensor around because he would lose the heart beat and would have to find it again.
After about half an hour of monitoring the graph showed a happy baby with a healthy heart beat and good movements.
We then had an ultrasound to make sure there was still enough fluid around the baby to see us through the next could of days. There was 10.6cm, apparently this is good. The scanning lady said if there was 4cm or less then we would not wait till Wednesday and they would get me back in tomorrow, but 10cm compared to 4cm seems like a good difference.
So now if Peanut does not make the move first we will be going back to the hospital in about 74.5 hours to get him started, not that i'm counting the hours now!!!
(: Reggie
Tuesday, 30 January 2007
Post hospital update
Went to hospital this morning and they have given us a 'plan' going forward (all of this of course is based on nothing happening in the mean time) -
First thing Sunday morning we have to go in for "fetal monitoring", this means they will listen to the heart beat for an hour or something to make sure that it still steady and good or something, and somehow will able to tell the amount of fluid around the baby as well, to make sure that he does not dry out?
Then on Wednesday night (next week, not tomorrow) we go to the hospital to get thing started!!! They are going to do "stage one" of induction amd hopefully within six hours things will start happening. If after six hours nothing has happened they re-do "stage one" and wait a bit longer. They did not tell us what any of the further stages are and what they have to do if stage one does not do anything.
I just hope Peanut figures it out before we get to this point, two weeks late is too long to wait!!!
(: Reggie
First thing Sunday morning we have to go in for "fetal monitoring", this means they will listen to the heart beat for an hour or something to make sure that it still steady and good or something, and somehow will able to tell the amount of fluid around the baby as well, to make sure that he does not dry out?
Then on Wednesday night (next week, not tomorrow) we go to the hospital to get thing started!!! They are going to do "stage one" of induction amd hopefully within six hours things will start happening. If after six hours nothing has happened they re-do "stage one" and wait a bit longer. They did not tell us what any of the further stages are and what they have to do if stage one does not do anything.
I just hope Peanut figures it out before we get to this point, two weeks late is too long to wait!!!
(: Reggie
Nothing yet...
Well we are now five days over due, and the waiting game is getting old!
We have a hospital appointment this morning and we were hoping that we were not going to make the appointment, that we would be in the hospital by now on our own. This hospital appointment is still just a check up, they are not going to be intervening at this point, but hopefully we will start to but a plan place for intervention if things are not "moving".
We had an appointment a couple of weeks ago when they told us that as long as blood pressure and blood sugar levels stay good they will let us go up to two weeks over!!!
Well levels are well under control and i am half tempted to eat Maccas for every meal, not do any for of exercise and hold my breath while they take my blood pressure so my read go up.
They don't call me Evil-G for nothing (who they?)
(: Reggie
We have a hospital appointment this morning and we were hoping that we were not going to make the appointment, that we would be in the hospital by now on our own. This hospital appointment is still just a check up, they are not going to be intervening at this point, but hopefully we will start to but a plan place for intervention if things are not "moving".
We had an appointment a couple of weeks ago when they told us that as long as blood pressure and blood sugar levels stay good they will let us go up to two weeks over!!!
Well levels are well under control and i am half tempted to eat Maccas for every meal, not do any for of exercise and hold my breath while they take my blood pressure so my read go up.
They don't call me Evil-G for nothing (who they?)
(: Reggie
Thursday, 25 January 2007
D Day (the D stands for due)
Well, i have reached the due date!!!
Or at least as of the last scan we have reached the due couple of days. The first ultrasound gave us a due date of 25th Jan 2007 (today) and the last ultrasound gave us a due date of 25th to 27th Jan. I do find it funny that the closer you get the more vague the dates gets!
I have spent most of this week stocking the freezer with meals that M34tb4LL and i can simply defrost, heat and eat. We have two meals worth of pasta bake, four of curry mince, three of chili con carne, two of beef stroganoff and i am in the middle of cooking up a lentil curry that will be at least four meals worth. I also have three meals worth of lasagna thanks to friend, Droidy. After Droidy made the lasagna for us, M34tb4LL asked if i can hurry up and have the baby so we can eat it!!!
The nursery is all done, the car seat has been fitted into the car, the hospital stay and the labour bag have been packed, the freezer is stocked, the email auto-forward has been set-up (so M34tb4LL can SMS his email address and an email will be sent to all family and friends), I have not yet said "I've had enough of being pregnant", but i am saying that i am ready for this pregnancy to end...
Just need our little peanut now.
"Anytime your ready son!"
(: Reggie
Or at least as of the last scan we have reached the due couple of days. The first ultrasound gave us a due date of 25th Jan 2007 (today) and the last ultrasound gave us a due date of 25th to 27th Jan. I do find it funny that the closer you get the more vague the dates gets!
I have spent most of this week stocking the freezer with meals that M34tb4LL and i can simply defrost, heat and eat. We have two meals worth of pasta bake, four of curry mince, three of chili con carne, two of beef stroganoff and i am in the middle of cooking up a lentil curry that will be at least four meals worth. I also have three meals worth of lasagna thanks to friend, Droidy. After Droidy made the lasagna for us, M34tb4LL asked if i can hurry up and have the baby so we can eat it!!!
The nursery is all done, the car seat has been fitted into the car, the hospital stay and the labour bag have been packed, the freezer is stocked, the email auto-forward has been set-up (so M34tb4LL can SMS his email address and an email will be sent to all family and friends), I have not yet said "I've had enough of being pregnant", but i am saying that i am ready for this pregnancy to end...Just need our little peanut now.
"Anytime your ready son!"
(: Reggie
Sunday, 14 January 2007
What's wrong with black?
I have finally bought the last few things on the list for the hospital bag, which is all backed and ready to go when Peanut is. Which according to M34tb4LL's Peanut countdown widget is in 9 days : 15 hours : 22 minutes : 19 seconds, but to the rest of us sometime around the 25th of this month.
I have bought a pair of track pants so i have something comfy to wear at the hospital, washed my jeans to wear home and packed them both in the bag. I also went on the hunt for feeding bras, because i did not have have any yet.
WELL!!!
I thought it would be best to go a bra shop and get one of the girlies there to help me - they sell bras every day and should know what size and stuff i need. I my wear bras, but i don't know anything about them!
So i went to large bra shop at the local shopping centre and told them of my needs. They asked me about the size that i am current;y wearing and then told me the size i would need in a feeding bra (not the same apparently!!!). They gave me a beige bra in the size they recommended and told me to put it on and wait for them to come in and check it for me.
I put it on and waited, waited, waited, waited - i thought if i have wait much longer i will go into labour! I put my clothes back on and went out to see if they had any 'nicer' looking bras, and in colours that would go with my wardrobe.
As i left the change room a girlie came up to me and asked if i had been fitted. I told her i had tried bra on, but she wanted to know had someone been in to check it - eerrrr, no! So she told me to go back and she will send someone straight away.
So i started the process again, but the bra on and waited. Then i stuck my head out of the curtain and started tyring to get attention, this only took a couple of yells.
A girlie came in the changing room with me, pulled on the straps a bit, asked a couple of questions, said me the fit was fine and told me to get changed again and she will 'put the bra through' for me - i think that means she was telling me i was allowed to buy it. Yaaaa, it might have been the right fit, but it was pretty darn ugly - and pricey!!! it cost as much as 6 of my normal bras!!!
I went out and put the bra back on the racks and starting searching for something nicer (and cheaper), and preferably in black - black goes with everything. In the size i need, no black, in fact in the size i need, there was only the one naff beige one! So i left the store with only the bra on my back.
I then searched every store i could think in the centre that sells bras, no black in any of them! I bought a pink one and a white one, but black is my preferred colour!
A couple of days later i got M34tb4LL to drive me to another centre, a little further away, still no luck - white, pink and beige only. We went to a few centres in the area and all of them came up with the same results. For the size i need - no black!!!! I even got one of the girlies in a bra shop to call her suppliers to see if they could get one, nope.
So i bought a second pink and a second white bra, have shoved them in the hospital bag and am now ready to go - black bra or not.
I have bought a pair of track pants so i have something comfy to wear at the hospital, washed my jeans to wear home and packed them both in the bag. I also went on the hunt for feeding bras, because i did not have have any yet.
WELL!!!
I thought it would be best to go a bra shop and get one of the girlies there to help me - they sell bras every day and should know what size and stuff i need. I my wear bras, but i don't know anything about them!
So i went to large bra shop at the local shopping centre and told them of my needs. They asked me about the size that i am current;y wearing and then told me the size i would need in a feeding bra (not the same apparently!!!). They gave me a beige bra in the size they recommended and told me to put it on and wait for them to come in and check it for me.
I put it on and waited, waited, waited, waited - i thought if i have wait much longer i will go into labour! I put my clothes back on and went out to see if they had any 'nicer' looking bras, and in colours that would go with my wardrobe.
As i left the change room a girlie came up to me and asked if i had been fitted. I told her i had tried bra on, but she wanted to know had someone been in to check it - eerrrr, no! So she told me to go back and she will send someone straight away.
So i started the process again, but the bra on and waited. Then i stuck my head out of the curtain and started tyring to get attention, this only took a couple of yells.
A girlie came in the changing room with me, pulled on the straps a bit, asked a couple of questions, said me the fit was fine and told me to get changed again and she will 'put the bra through' for me - i think that means she was telling me i was allowed to buy it. Yaaaa, it might have been the right fit, but it was pretty darn ugly - and pricey!!! it cost as much as 6 of my normal bras!!!
I went out and put the bra back on the racks and starting searching for something nicer (and cheaper), and preferably in black - black goes with everything. In the size i need, no black, in fact in the size i need, there was only the one naff beige one! So i left the store with only the bra on my back.
I then searched every store i could think in the centre that sells bras, no black in any of them! I bought a pink one and a white one, but black is my preferred colour!
A couple of days later i got M34tb4LL to drive me to another centre, a little further away, still no luck - white, pink and beige only. We went to a few centres in the area and all of them came up with the same results. For the size i need - no black!!!! I even got one of the girlies in a bra shop to call her suppliers to see if they could get one, nope.
So i bought a second pink and a second white bra, have shoved them in the hospital bag and am now ready to go - black bra or not.
Friday, 5 January 2007
Three weeks to go...
So peanut is due in three weeks, from yesterday. Peanut is due in two weeks and 6 days.
Yup, three weeks.
That is 21 days (well seeing as it was three weeks yesterday it is actually 20 days)
I can still remember when my counter thingy was saying 200 days!!! but now it is saying 20 days?
and tomorrow it will day 19 days! and about a week and half we will be down to single digits!!!
Three weeks
I hate hot weather - my feet keep swelling up so much that i can not wear any of my shoes! Yesterday we went to visit M34tb4LL's mother at her annual holiday spot at the beach and by the time we got there i had to borrow her thongs because there was no way my shoes were going to go on my pudgy feet. It is literally the first time M34tb4LL has seem me wear a pair of thongs - EVER. I think today i will have to go to the shops and invest in pair of thongs of my very own.
Did i mention that there are only three weeks to go????
(: Reggie
Yup, three weeks.
That is 21 days (well seeing as it was three weeks yesterday it is actually 20 days)
I can still remember when my counter thingy was saying 200 days!!! but now it is saying 20 days?
and tomorrow it will day 19 days! and about a week and half we will be down to single digits!!!
Three weeks
I hate hot weather - my feet keep swelling up so much that i can not wear any of my shoes! Yesterday we went to visit M34tb4LL's mother at her annual holiday spot at the beach and by the time we got there i had to borrow her thongs because there was no way my shoes were going to go on my pudgy feet. It is literally the first time M34tb4LL has seem me wear a pair of thongs - EVER. I think today i will have to go to the shops and invest in pair of thongs of my very own.
Did i mention that there are only three weeks to go????
(: Reggie
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